For intersession...and all your tobacco needs!
Posted on 01/01/2005 4:14:04 PM PST by Catholic54321
Vatican City, Vatican City, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An article in a leading Roman Catholic journal signals that the Vatican may join the public health establishment's crusade against cigarette smoking.
The latest edition of the scholarly publication Civilta Cattolica, published by the Jesuits and approved by a top aide to Pope John Paul II, says smokers cannot damage their own health and that of others "without moral responsibility."
The article by Giuseppe de Rosa stops short of calling smoking a sin, but says lighting up is "not neutral either in social or indeed moral terms."
De Rosa's views, and presumably the Vatican's itself, are a change from the previous -- and rather mild -- position of the Roman Catholic church, as summed up in its 1997 catechism: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Pius X smoked cigars, even as Pope.
Just short, it appears.
Perhaps the Pope should get in touch with the Mormons. Why stop at cigarettes?
"Perhaps the Pope should get in touch with the Mormons. Why stop at cigarettes?" I dunno, jumping from celibacy to polygamy might mean some culture shock...LOL
In other words, a personal opinion of someone who happens to be Catholic (although you can't be sure with Jesuits) and lives in Italy. Nothing to do with the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church.
What's discouraging about this position is that progressive types will embrace this wholeheartedly while still advocating abortion, free sexuality, and moral relativism.
Now if the Vatican just teamed up with PETA and went vegan, then they fill those pews!
Since this supposedly came from a Catholic journal, who's to know who speaks for the Catholic church?
"smokers cannot damage their own health and that of others 'without moral responsibility.'"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't that "second hand smoke" argument been discredited?
The National Review isn't produced by, or within the goverment or Presidents administration. The Civilta Cattolica, published by the Jesuits, is produced by/within the Catholic church. Are you saying the Jesuits aren't a part of the church?
Indeed it has, Sausage, many times.
However, you will not see those stories in the MSM.
BTW...my Nana died last year, at 102. Smoked for 85 years, then two weeks short of her 103rd birthday, had a massive stroke, lived 4 more days, then passed away.
Now I'm all worried that she's burning in Hell someplace because she lacked "moral responsibility." /sarcasm
Regards,
The Jesuits are no more a part of the "administration" of the Catholic Church than the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic is of the Bush Administration. They're an organization with their own opinions and agenda, which may or may not coincide with official positions of the Holy See, or with Catholic doctrine.
Even if John Paul II himself got on TV and said, "I don't think people should smoke; it's rude, smelly, and unhealthy!" that still wouldn't be anything other than his personal, take-it-or-leave-it opinion.
"may join " are the key words.
A denomination within a demonination.
That's one way of looking at it ... the Jesuits have always had kind of a peculiar status.
Any organization has subgroups which do not represent the organization as a whole. The media tends to present any dopey statement by any Catholic individual or group as being the teaching of the Church, and that's simply inaccurate.
Prove to me it's a sin, using scripture. Till then I'm not buying it, this guy is just another one of those PC types.
If you don't like that I smoke, don't stand near me. I am courteous to try not to stand down wind when I am smoking and stand away from a crowd as do all other smokers I know.
Deut. 5:17 "Thou shalt not kill."
I suppose one could maintain that cigarette smoking is harmless (not talkin' second-hand smoke here), but there seems to be a ponderous body of empirical evidence that suggests otherwise, despite the miraculous exceptions.
Besides, any addiction, dependence, and obsession that comes with smoking seems to be at variance with the God-given freedom that we were created with, and certainly diminishes one's capacity to live to his fullest potential, given that this habit, this coddling of one's self, takes away time and treasure from He Whom we serve.
St.Chuck,What about life Teens.The founder was suspended and your worried about smoking.Strike 2 for my granddson-he belongs to Life Teen and his principle was shipped away too.Smoking does not kill your faith.This post is a distraction from what is really going on.When the head of 100,000 teens is suspended they tell us to stop smoking.
The article also says "and approved by a top aide to Pope John Paul II" - MIGHT the better implication be "One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing"?
Your post is exactly what I was thinking. They certainly have bigger dragons to slay than PC groupthink issues.
Best,So many have left,I talk to them everyday.I say clean up your house and then preach to us because we are sick of the distractions.
They should worry more about preventing people from smoking in the next life, not this one.
I'm not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole. ; )
Could be, but on the other hand, the "aide" might be anybody. Maybe it's a security aide. Maybe it's a sanitation aide. What the Freep does his opinion on faith and morals matter?
:-) ... smart choice !
ROFL!
I would suggest that there is nothing wrong with shepherds of a spiritual and temporal flock to offer guidance regarding that which would harm.
I resent that, there is no chip at all. You are assuming that I made a concious choice rather than being forced into a choice my parents made.
And I am not judging Catholics at large, in the least. The leadership, however, they should worry about the beam in thier eye rather than the mote in mine. Secondly, I don't see this as "moral" issue at all.
reaganaut did good.
ping!
*cough*cough*cough*
There is a thread concerning LifeTeen.
The founder was suspended and your worried about smoking.
This thread is about smoking. I was addressing a query by another poster. I had heard Fr. Corapi bring this subject up in the context of the Fifth commandment. I think it is interesting, not worrisome.
Smoking does not kill your faith.
No it doesn't, but dismissing Holy Mother Church's thinking as irrelevant because one happens to be focused on the allegations of someone who has retrieved a repressed memory some 20 years after the incident, doesn't sound very faithful to begin with. ;o)
You post like a 5th grader.Second incident.You defend him-says all.
Doh...!
Influential clergyman is placed on leave
Sex allegation targets Fushek
Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 30, 2004 12:00 AM
A Valley priest who founded a charismatic youth group that exploded into the nation's largest teen ministry was placed on administrative leave Wednesday while his superiors investigate an allegation of sexual impropriety that went unreported for two decades.
The allegation was the second of a sexual nature brought in the past 10 years against Monsignor Dale Fushek, founder of the Life Teen movement and longtime pastor at St. Timothy's Parish in Mesa.
Neither incident involved physical sexual contact. One involved a sexual-harassment complaint raised by a male Life Teen employee that was settled out of court for $45,000 in 1995. The most recent allegation stems from an event that reportedly took place in 1985 when the accuser, then 14, said he was sodomized by another priest while Fushek watched and performed sexual acts on himself without intervening to protect the youth.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted was made aware of the latest allegation Tuesday, and after his deputies met with the accuser's attorney, the bishop announced he was placing Fushek on paid administrative leave. The decision means Fushek, one of the most popular priests in the diocese, is banned from all public ministry, including saying Mass, until the investigation is complete.
"This has been a very difficult but necessary decision," the bishop's top aide, Vicar General Fred Adamson, said at a hastily called news conference at the diocese's headquarters in downtown Phoenix.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1230priest30.html
The Church uses the commandments to teach a lot about what is and isn't conducive to living a good Christian life. It uses the fifth commandment to teach not only what is obvious, but also about scandal, respect for the dignity of persons and respect for health.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2288: "Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good."
If smoking shortens lifespans and leads to debilitating health consequences in later years, I think it is worth thinking about the "others and the common good".
Second, I belonged to a cult that controlled what I ate, drank, wore, read, etc. Smoking was definitely out of the question.
One interesting thing about the Church is that it never really controls what you do, it certainly tells you what to do. I have heard sermons that condemn immodest dress, TV, certain publications, and even the internet.
CCC 2290: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine."
I like to think that the catholicism of the Church is not just a physical universality, but also catholic in it's intellectualism and it's culturalism. There is nothing that humans can do without the Church, when she deems it necessary, weighing in on the subject.
I doubt the Vatican is as concerned about my health as they are about how their statement appears to the more liberal crowd.
I see the Church as an extraordinarily conservative and supernatural institution. Any pronouncement that appears to be pandering to liberals is pure coincidence. Advising her adherents not to smoke is just sound wisdom, that any parent, even smoking parents would give, not political opportunism.
You are a looser,keep your hands off of reaganaut
,I have grown to take care of her from strange posts.
Thank Saint sempertrad.I am sick of posters with saints for first names.phonies
We do not care.
thank you for defending me.
reaganaut,you have a lot of courage,proud of you girlfriend.
LOL !!!
The Jesuits have no more authority to speak for the Pope or the entire Catholic Church than Senator John McCain has a right to speak for President Bush or the entire Republican Party.
Just because you are part of the Republican Party does not make you the Republican Party and just because a certain group is a part of the Catholic Church does not make them the Catholic Church.
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